Brett Dean

Polysomnography

The title of the Sextet has been borrowed from the medical profession, referring to a clinical sleep study. Brett Dean, however, proves to be less of a cool, analytical dissector of man's inner worlds than a modern revenant of German Romanticism which attached a higher truth to the dream - 'man is a god when he dreams and a beggar when he thinks' (Hölderlin). In the 5 movements of the sextet, bearing titles such as 'Theta Waves', 'Myoclonus' or 'Dream Sequence', Dean delves into a - literally - dreamlike world of the subconscious and phantastic.